adding books from Kobo desktop app to Calibre

A Lurker · 02-21-2025, 08:31 PM

I'll apologize in advance for asking such a rudimentary question . . . being that my question is so basic, I assumed the answer would be easy to find, but my research skills have failed me.

I would like to import books I've purchased with the Kobo Windows desktop app to my Calibre library. I've added the obok plugin to Calibre, so I should be good to go.

When I click "Add books" in Calibre, I'm presented with the file explorer popup window . . .

What do I do next? I have no idea where to find the actual ebook files.
There's no obvious Kobo download folder. Which means I don't know where to point Calibre.

In other words, where on my PC are the Kobo books I purchased and download with the desktop apps? I need to know their file location to be able to import them into Calibre.

The general "read me" text that comes with the DeDRM tools simple says: "[The obok plugin] finds your ebooks downloaded using the Kobo Desktop app [...] For instructions, see the obok_plugin_ReadMe.txt file."

The "read me" text that comes with the plugin says: "Select the plugin's menu or icon from whichever part of the calibre interface you have chosen to have it." This really confuses me. I don't see a menu for the the plugin within the Calibre interface. And I've not chosen where it's displayed in that interface.

A Lurker · 02-21-2025, 08:55 PM

UPDATE:

Based on the "read me" file and a video I watched on YouTube, I believe that when I installed the obok plugin there should be a popup window asking me where I wanted to display the Obok icon. However, I was presented with no such popup. I guess I experienced a bug? Anyway, because of that, I had no idea there was supposed to be an Obok in in Calibre interface.

I found a way to manually add it (by going to Preferences>Toolbars>Main toolbar and adding the icon). Now the icon is display. As I understanding, pressing the icon triggers Calibre to automatically locate the Kobo desktop app downloads???

DNSB · 02-21-2025, 10:58 PM

Correct. As for the physical location of the books download by the KDA? Take a look at C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Kobo\Kobo Desktop Edition\kepub which has the books with no extension and filename reminiscent of a GUID. OBOK takes care of displaying the filenames as human readable and importing it into calibre with those names. Just click on the OBOK icon and you should see a list of the books in your app library.

A Lurker · 02-22-2025, 10:15 AM

Thanks for your quick and clear response.

And thanks for tolerating and interpreting my many embarrassing typos. I wrote those posts while half-asleep and it shows!

I was trying to explain the source of my confusion. I had no idea there was supposed to be an Obok icon in the Calibre interface. The instructions weren't clear on this point. And Calibre didn't prompt me to add it to the toolbar after I installed the plugin. Consequently, I assumed you'd add Kobo books to Calibre the same way you'd add any other book on your hard drive -- by using the "Add" button.

As you might have guessed, with Amazon ending download-and-transfer I'm looking for another source for ebook purchases. I figure I'll try the Kobo store.

On a side note, years ago I experiment with purchasing Kobo books. Back then I had a problem with Amazon rejecting the Kobo books because they weren't properly formatted. I believe it was you who helped me figure that out and modify the Kobo epubs to encode them with UTF-8. Thanks for that as well.

02-21-2025, 08:31 PM	#1
A Lurker Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 335288 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle	adding books from Kobo desktop app to Calibre I'll apologize in advance for asking such a rudimentary question . . . being that my question is so basic, I assumed the answer would be easy to find, but my research skills have failed me. I would like to import books I've purchased with the Kobo Windows desktop app to my Calibre library. I've added the obok plugin to Calibre, so I should be good to go. When I click "Add books" in Calibre, I'm presented with the file explorer popup window . . . What do I do next? I have no idea where to find the actual ebook files. There's no obvious Kobo download folder. Which means I don't know where to point Calibre. In other words, where on my PC are the Kobo books I purchased and download with the desktop apps? I need to know their file location to be able to import them into Calibre. The general "read me" text that comes with the DeDRM tools simple says: "[The obok plugin] finds your ebooks downloaded using the Kobo Desktop app [...] For instructions, see the obok_plugin_ReadMe.txt file." The "read me" text that comes with the plugin says: "Select the plugin's menu or icon from whichever part of the calibre interface you have chosen to have it." This really confuses me. I don't see a menu for the the plugin within the Calibre interface. And I've not chosen where it's displayed in that interface.

02-21-2025, 10:58 PM	#3
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 46,048 Karma: 168961900 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Libra Colour, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	Correct. As for the physical location of the books download by the KDA? Take a look at C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Kobo\Kobo Desktop Edition\kepub which has the books with no extension and filename reminiscent of a GUID. OBOK takes care of displaying the filenames as human readable and importing it into calibre with those names. Just click on the OBOK icon and you should see a list of the books in your app library. Last edited by DNSB; 02-21-2025 at 11:02 PM.

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02-21-2025, 08:55 PM	#2
A Lurker Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 335288 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle	UPDATE: Based on the "read me" file and a video I watched on YouTube, I believe that when I installed the obok plugin there should be a popup window asking me where I wanted to display the Obok icon. However, I was presented with no such popup. I guess I experienced a bug? Anyway, because of that, I had no idea there was supposed to be an Obok in in Calibre interface. I found a way to manually add it (by going to Preferences>Toolbars>Main toolbar and adding the icon). Now the icon is display. As I understanding, pressing the icon triggers Calibre to automatically locate the Kobo desktop app downloads???

02-22-2025, 10:15 AM	#4
A Lurker Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 335288 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kindle	Thanks for your quick and clear response. And thanks for tolerating and interpreting my many embarrassing typos. I wrote those posts while half-asleep and it shows! I was trying to explain the source of my confusion. I had no idea there was supposed to be an Obok icon in the Calibre interface. The instructions weren't clear on this point. And Calibre didn't prompt me to add it to the toolbar after I installed the plugin. Consequently, I assumed you'd add Kobo books to Calibre the same way you'd add any other book on your hard drive -- by using the "Add" button. As you might have guessed, with Amazon ending download-and-transfer I'm looking for another source for ebook purchases. I figure I'll try the Kobo store. On a side note, years ago I experiment with purchasing Kobo books. Back then I had a problem with Amazon rejecting the Kobo books because they weren't properly formatted. I believe it was you who helped me figure that out and modify the Kobo epubs to encode them with UTF-8. Thanks for that as well.

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